The Azurrin Week 2019 Situation Type Deal
by Nate-kun
Summary: Seven days, seven prompts, all in the name of a prince and his songstress.
1. Day 01 - Adrift-Grounding

**You might be wondering 'Nate you stanned, as the kids say, Corrin/Azura before stan was even a thing people said unironically. Why did a known ****connoisseur like yourself ****wait until 2020, nearly five years, two main installments, and a couple of spin-offs later, to participate in Azurrin Week?' The answer is almost Shakespearean in its simplicity: It just slipped my mind, and I'm terrible with deadlines, and a couple of other convenient excuses. This year, in the spirit of the new decade_, _I'm trying something different****—actually participating. Let's hope I don't fold two days in. **

**And there but for the grace of god go I****—****begin the compendium.**

**Word count: 627 words.**

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The Azurrin Week 2019 Situation Type Deal

Day .01 - Adrift/Grounding

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"I can remember being in a void," Azura whispered, a hand crossing her heart. "Still, empty, lifeless. It reminded me of the night sky—one barren of stars."

Corrin held her other hand, his eyes on the skies but his mind consumed by the images she wove.

"For nights at a time, I would awaken there. It didn't matter when I slept or where, I would always end up waking to the distant howling of nothingness, floating endlessly on an island so small. Everything was surreal. I wasn't even sure if I was truly moving, carried along by the echoing wind, or if the fog and miasma were simply passing by as I stayed motionless, imprisoned in their realm for however long I dreamt."

"Azura..." Corrin squeezed gently, firmly, as though he feared he would lose her unless he kept her anchored, grounded, unable to be swept away.

"Still," she squeezed him in return. "That hollow vacuum was better than the world I left behind. So I slept, I slept constantly. Even if I did not need to. Even if I needed to force myself to. If I was not in despair, I was sleeping, escaping to that tiny perch in the mist where nothing could hurt me. Soon I came to realize that, in spite of the circumstances, that eternal prison was less constricting than the reality outside of it. I..."

The songstress paused, heaving a deep breath.

"I did not understand why life was worth living. I _could_ not. How could I—when the only place I could truly find solace was beyond life itself, in a dream, a dream that would never come true? As I continued to fall deeper and deeper into melancholy, the fog gradually petered. It seemed that the more defeated I was, the less unfeeling the dream became. Eventually, after countless nights adrift, I came upon a land in the sky, and afterward... I could no longer tell the two worlds apart."

Corrin had long since turned on his side, both of his hands gripping hers. Not even the brightest star could tear him away from her. "What happened then?" he asked quietly, softly.

The songstress shook her head. "Everything is a haze after that, other than that they were sweet dreams, the most pleasant I've ever had, filled with people who loved and cared for me. It only gave me more reason to escape, and for a time that was all I ever did. Then, once I was taken to Hoshido, the dreams stopped altogether. I was no longer able to visit the safe haven I once had, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how desperate I became. I was devastated and no one could understand why. They mistook my tears for trauma brought on by the kidnapping or homesickness. I suppose the latter wasn't entirely wrong, in a manner of speaking..."

She turned to him, smiling faintly.

"In the end, it didn't matter. My time in Hoshido filled the void left by my restless dreams. I suppose that's why I stopped having them, because I no longer needed to rely on them to feel loved."

"You had friends and family once more by then," Corrin finished for her, but not before adding. "A-and me."

"Yes," she breathed. "My time in Nohr became a distant memory, as did my dreams. Only once I met you did they begin resurfacing, one by one, little by little."

"Fancy that," Corrin said, his heart taken by the way the moonlight shone upon her face. "Coincidence?"

She paused, and for a moment it seemed to him as if something had dawned on her, but if anything did, she was sure not to mention it.

"I wouldn't rule it out," she smiled.


	2. Day 02 - Rhythm-Out of Sync

**Word count: 471 words.**

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Day .02 - Rhythm/Out of Sync

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They ditched their sandals at a moment's notice.

"They'll only get in the way," Azura claimed.

"You know I'm no good at this," Corrin rubbed the back of his neck, his other hand clutching a hagoita. "A-at least, I'm pretty sure you know..."

He worried his protests fell on deaf ears, ignored in favor of the diligent, meticulous setup happening all around him, until she finally spoke. "I'm aware. This is not our first new year together, after all."

"_Ah,_" Corrin parted his lips, his face the slightest shade of red. Azura could be quite candid, even when stating the obvious. "T-then maybe it would be best if you had someone else to—"

"Do you know what I love most about hanetsuki, Corrin?" she asked, her smile warm and radiant under the festival lights. "Aside from my winning streak, of course."

Corrin chewed over it, but seeing as she had the foresight to rule out the only answer he could come up with on the spot, he was left at a loss. "Er... I'm afraid I don't."

"It's the rhythm," she answered, already setting her shuttlecock aloft with her lucky hagoita at a gentle pace. "The flow, the beat of it all. You can make it your own. The ease of which you can weave a tune is so simple, anyone can do it—and yet, mastering it is an art all of its own. It's much like song and dance in that aspect, I suppose. Hee, what a surprise, isn't it? For that to be the reason I was drawn to this little game."

With a light little _whoosh_, she sent the shuttlecock over to Corrin, who couldn't be more unprepared. "_A-Ah! _Wait a moment, I'm not ready—!"

The songstress couldn't suppress the giggle that escaped her as she plucked the shuttlecock from his hair. "Come, what better way to welcome the new year than with the melody of a simple rally?"

"Really?" said Corrin. "Even if that rally is between a novice and a goddess?"

"Yes, especially," she returned to her end of the court. "I would like a duet this year, and much like our little waltzes under the moon, there is no one else I would rather share this dance with."

Corrin felt his heart skip a beat at that, and then several hundred more beats as she went on.

"In fact, I think we'll keep at it until we can orchestrate a rally of one-hundred strokes. I won't let you rest until we hit that goal. By the time we've finished here, you will be a dragon both in life, and in the realm of hanetsuki!"

With her words came the stroke of midnight, and the first of a night's worth of dazzling lights in the sky.

"Mercy," Corrin pleaded. "That's all I ask. Mercy, please..."


	3. Day 03 - Soothe-Rage

**Word count: 283 words.**

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Day .03 - Soothe/Rage

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_"Hah..._ How ironic," Azura coughed. "I'm the performer and yet, _you_ are the one on-stage this evening."

She was dressed for the occasion, wearing a darker variation of her usual attire, complete with a veil to obscure her lips. If she were being honest, she was hoping it would introduce a touch of excitement to their little midnight tryst, as opposed to a touch of malaise.

"Oh, I don't mind," Corrin hummed from behind the piano. "You've done so much for us—_all of us__—_as is. You were going to fall under the weather sooner or later. It's no surprise, really. Sakura said it wasn't even that bad!"

"But," the songstress wheezed, pausing as she pulled her many blankets closer. "Tonight was supposed to be different.. After all that's transpired lately—for you, I, everyone—I truly wanted to escape from it all with you. To relieve and mitigate the ire brought upon us, if just for one evening. To think that our schedules finally clear, and then this happens... Forgive me for feeling the least bit guilty, Corrin."

"Don't be," Corrin shook his head, playing a couple of notes to warm up. "It isn't your fault. These things happen! Besides, who's to say we still can't take a load off? You're the number one advocate for music healing the heart, body, and soul, after all!"

"I suppose I am," she sighed, resigning herself to his bed as he began playing a familiar melody from his youth. "Thank you, my love."

Her words were faint, but they struck him true. "Any time," Corrin smiled. "See? I'm not totally dissonant!"

The prince and princess laughed into the night, regaled by song and harmony.


	4. Day 04 - Truth-Legend

**Already at it with the prior chapter callbacks.**

**Word count: 614 words.**

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Day .04 - Truth/Legend

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"You were my prince," the queen spoke softly. "My dreamy, perfect prince."

Corrin was still fiddling with the clasp on his dancer's attire when she said it, almost dropping it to the tune of several unfurled sashes and an iron clang against the balcony deck. Fortunately, he caught it and began clumsily fastening it before such a thing could happen, allowing his gaze to wander to the woman who had gifted him with the traditional ensemble.

The once lady of the lake had matured into an enchantingly regal woman—still cool and reserved, but now far more majestic than she could have ever hoped to be during those halcyon mornings by the dew-laden lakeside. Valla's new queen was without question a sight to behold_—some would even say a 'legendary' sight—_with just a tiny bit more gold adorning her body than she knew what to do with.

"Me, a prince?" the magnificent feather garnishing Azura's crown bobbed as she turned to meet her love's sweet, bewildered gaze. "_Your _prince? W-well, I mean, I guess that's true. Er, 'course I may be a king now, but I _was _a prince at one point! A-and I suppose if you were to look at well, _us, _back then under a rose-tinted, lovey dovey, 'hold me in your arms and whisper sweet things to me' lens, I could see how one might arrive at the conclusion that I was _your _prince—"

"Silly," Azura pressed a finger to his lips. "Do you truly not remember that night under the stars?"

"It's hard to say. We've shared so many, like right now for instance," Corrin seized the opportunity to grasp the hand at his lips. "And I want to share even more! You're going to have to be a bit more specific."

"Aren't we charming this evening? It must be the dress," she returned the gesture, laying her free hand over his. "I'm referring to the night I confided in you about my dreams, the ones I used to have as a child."

Corrin blinked. "_Ah. _That night. Of course I remember! How could I forget?"

"You just did."

"Now _that's _something I don't recall," he chuckled. "Well? What of that night?"

"It's as I said," she repeated. "You were the prince in my dreams—one of the many friends I made on the floating island I drifted upon, and one of the few people I could rely on in a life otherwise touched by darkness. My recollection wasn't perfect then, but now I know after spending all this time at your side—that you were the one making my dreams come true, long before we had ever actually met face to face."

It was a lot to process, and Corrin was not one to process things quickly. He blinked, and hummed, and blinked again, cocking his head to the side as he thought of what to say.

In the end, however, he settled for another chuckle while drawing her into an embrace. "Opposing birthplaces, opposing kidnappings, joined resolves, love at first sight, and now dreams. Next you're going to tell me we were born minutes apart with a marriage already arranged within the hour. Entwined fates, indeed... So this dress then, I take it this is what dreamy me wore?"

"Yes," Azura rested her head in the crook of his neck. "I had it sewn from memory. Flora and Felicia insisted. They worried I would again forget what it looked like if I hesitated."

"Mm, you made the right call," the king pulled away from her to grin cheekily. "Now I can make your dreams come true _all the time!_"

"Foolish," she slapped him playfully. "You already have."


	5. Day 05 - Protect-Sacrifice

**Word count: 635 words.**

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Day .05 - Protect/Sacrifice

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"_Hah... ah... hah..."_

_"Ah...haah... haaah... ah..."_

They were both in bandages, breathing heavily, wrapped to the point of mummification with only their faces and a few uneven patches of skin spared from Felicia's frenetic fretting. Flora's handiwork was much more controlled and precise, but was no more effective in making them look like anything but reanimated corpses.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Jakob snapped as he meticulously tended to his lord's bloodstained cheek. He was probably in more of an existential panic than even Felicia, masking his worry with righteous indignation. "We told you specifically, exactly, definitively, with absolutely no room for error or miscommunication, to wait for the cavalry! I told you thirteen—no, fourteen times!—and I was very close to telling you for a fifteenth time, milord, before you recklessly dashed in anyways! I almost had a heart attack! Two, even! And quite possibly a stroke as well!"

"_Ow.._" Corrin groaned, wincing as the butler dabbed his cheek repeatedly. "_Not so rough, Jakob..._"

Jakob was very close to convulsing.

"I counted at least three Wyrmslayer users! I couldn't be any more rough with you if I tried!"

"You really should have been more careful," Lilith tended to a minor, uncovered cut on Azura's leg, nowhere near as frenzied. "Both of you. I'm not exactly sure what happened out there, but I imagine anyone would arrive at that conclusion if they happened upon the two of you."

_"Aaaaah!_ I-I'm sorry!" Felicia immediately apologized, bowing before returning to treating another one of Azura's exposed wounds. "I-I tried my best to cover all the really awful stuff up first! But then I used too much, and then I ran out of bandages, and then I stumbled on the way over, a-and this was basically as good as I could get it!"

"Please Felicia," said Flora as she cleaned Corrin's other cheek. "It isn't your fault. This is simply the end result of relying on staves so frequently. How shameful it is that we've run short on them."

"_My apologies..._" said Azura through her wrappings. _"I... I'm not sure what got into me... I saw Corrin running... and I just..."_

Jakob was moments from another unfettered diatribe of swears and curses when the door swung open, revealing a barreling little blueberry who was far too young to hear any of them.

"_Mamaaa! Papaaa!_" Kana cried, bawling non-stop into Azura's chest. "Y-you're both okay! I'm so happy! B-but, but, but also so sad! _Uwaah! _I-I thought, I thought, something was going to happen!"

"Mother, father!" Shigure entered the room after his sister, his usual composure absent. The young man was no stranger to losing loved ones, and his voice nearly cracked as he heaved a sigh of relief knowing that he wouldn't have to face such a tragedy again just yet. "Thank goodness. I saw what transpired. I tried as fast as I could to join up with you, but by the time I arrived, you were both already—!"

"_It's okay..._" their mother said, hugging Kana tenderly and gesturing Shigure to join them. "_We... were simply carried away... That's all..._"

"_I saw one of them... going for Azura..._" Corrin added. "_Rushed in.. Couldn't let that happen..._"

"_And I witnessed one... going for you, Corrin..._" Azura countered. "_I could not let their sneak attack__... come to pass..._"

The power couple continued breathing deeply, thinking nothing of their wounds, only of each other and their children.

"What do you mean _'carried away'_?!" Jakob butted in. "Gods' sake! There's a hole in your chest, milord! A HOLE! If you're back on the frontlines in less than a week, it will be nothing short of miraculous!"

"_Well..._" Corrin wheezed. "_I__f you're the one looking after us... That might just come true."_

Needless to say, Jakob was extremely close to convulsing.


	6. Day 06 - Instinct-Faith

**Word count: 400 words.**

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Day .06 - Instinct/Faith

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"Back again, are we?"

Azura only ran the lottery shop every other weekend, during which time it operated as the Dawn Lottery—the Hoshidan holy antithesis to the Nohrian Dusk Lottery which otherwise occupied the premises. The alternating schedule meant that equal time could be allotted to hosting each kingdom's lottery, as well as offering the option for the curious denizens of one kingdom try their luck at the lottery of the other's, or stick with the lottery they were more familiar with if they weren't of a risk-taking disposition.

Coincidentally, Corrin only visited the lottery shop when it was a Dawn Lottery weekend, and stranger still, only during Azura's shift. If the songstress noticed the pattern, she didn't call him out on it. Total coincidence, she would claim.

"Yup!" Corrin grinned with confidence, hands on his hips. "My gut tells me today's my lucky day!"

Azura was leaning over the counter, her chin propped by her fist (a stance that came naturally to her whenever shopkeeping). "Has it now? It seems as though that 'gut' of yours is always trying to whisper sweet nothings in your ear—with no return on the investment, I might add."

"Huh?" Corrin blinked. "What makes you say that?"

"My own intuition, and the fact that you always wander in claiming with unfounded bravado that the day is in your fortune," she bluntly answered. "Either your stomach is a worse liar than Iago, or you are more unfortunate than Arthur, so much so that you cannot hope to take advantage of whatever day-to-day luck your gut bestows upon you."

"T-that's," Corrin stammered, his face beet red. Honestly, he had lost track of how many times he had used that simple (but reliable!) icebreaker on her. "Well, uh, um..."

"But I suppose if you wanted to try your luck in spite of all that," Azura smiled. "Then who am I stop you? Perhaps fate truly is on your side today. They do say fortune favors the bold, after all."

Despite the now-reluctant growling in his gut and his clear and sudden absence of boldness, Corrin stepped forward anyway. "Draw please!"

"As you wish."

A single spin was all it took for Corrin's hopes and dreams to be crushed, his soul sinking to the depths of eternity at the wooden ball rolling out of the drawing device.

"Don't lose heart," said the songstress. "There's always tomorrow."


	7. Day 07 - Hear My Cry-Silenced

**Well, that was fun wasn't it? Not even nine days into 2020 and I've already fulfilled one of my resolutions.**

**Word count: 754 words.**

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Day .07 - Hear My Cry/Silenced

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If they could convince even one person, it would have been worth it. They ultimately wouldn't be that much stronger, but at the very least it would stand to represent the start of something different, something new, something bright and hopeful.

If they could convince two or three people, it would have been realistic. Ever the pessimist, Azura doubted that anyone outside of Corrin's closest, most devoted confidants would believe in their cause, much less spare the time to hear them out in the first place.

If they could convince ten people, even better. Things still wouldn't be quite ideal, but the circumstances would definitely start veering into optimistic territory. In her most hopeful scenario, Azura foresaw herself and Corrin standing alongside the royals of both kingdoms, bound together as a symbol of unity to come.

In the end, when all was said and done, when the time came for the Bottomless Canyon to unfurl to the eerie rhythm of the darkening skies, Corrin and Azura found themselves amid the joined ranks of a small yet determined army. It was nothing short of the devil's own luck, and the time had finally come for them to take part in the ultimate test of faith.

Time was at a standstill. The group was silent, with nothing but the ominous moaning ambience of the abyss below to keep them company. It was like hell itself was rearing its ugly, fettered face at them, daring them to take the plunge into eternity. Ironically, the phantom threat wasn't anywhere near as daunting as the thought of convincing dozens of other people at the last minute to take that hellish plunge with them.

"So," Azura broke the silence, the ends of her dress trailing in the howling wind. "We're finally here. Hmm, and yet saying that feels so surreal. I honestly didn't expect us to gather so much support in such little time. Even the very idea that anyone but myself would know about this... _this place, _is dreamlike to me."

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Corrin chimed in. "How far we've all come—and we haven't even jumped in yet!"

"Truthfully," Azura mused, eyes boring into the emptiness below. "Now that we're here, I must confess... I'm hesitant."

"Hesitant?" Corrin frowned. "Is something the matter? Did we forget something?"

"Perhaps that was the wrong word. Forgive me," the songstress shook her head. "Imagine having a vision, a seemingly unobtainable dream, and suddenly having that dream thrust upon you after so many years of hopelessly working towards it. When all you can think of is reaching such heights, you don't exactly think of what comes next. All this time, I've been forced to keep so many secrets to myself. I thought I would have to stay silent forever, taking those accursed words with me to my grave."

"Azura..."

"Then," she continued. "When all seems lost, someone comes along and pierces through the darkness, giving you the opportunity to shout, to break through and cry at the top of your lungs. After countless years of despair and agony, it seems like nothing more than a sick joke. You're unable to react, unable to process it, unable to comprehend it. Everything that seemed so impossible mere days ago—is now a reality unfolding before your very eyes, and you're still wondering if and when you'll ever wake up from it. Even now, looking down below, I can feel myself tensing up. I..."

It was faint, but he could tell she was shaking. Almost instinctively, Corrin reached out to her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"We can do this," he told her. "You, me, and all the royals and retainers in the world put together! Uh, once we convince them to jump, that is."

"Yes," he felt her stop shaking, a good sign. "You're right. There's no turning back now. No matter how unreal things seem, we must press on. It'll be decades before the skies change again, and by then it will be too late."

Azura closed her eyes, a sliver of light breaking through the gray skies to shine down upon her. In that moment, she recalled it all—everything and everyone that had brought her to this point—and smiled.

"The truth is stranger than fiction, isn't that what they say?" she opened her eyes. "Thank you, Corrin. For everything—now, and in the future."

"_Ah,_" Corrin stuttered, and he thought for sure he heard Elise teasing him from afar, but he brushed it aside.

"You're welcome, Azura."


End file.
